1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data collection and processing. More particularly, the invention relates to analysis of configuration and utilization data for the purpose of facilitating product upgrades.
2. Description of the Related Art
Users of information technology (IT) are becoming increasingly dependent on their systems in their everyday business and/or personal lives. As a result, users cannot afford to be “out of service” for any period of time, if at all. Users rely on system availability, good performance, capacity for near and long-term growth, and the capability to easily and quickly project total solution requirements for current and new third party applications. To meet these needs users must have the capability to procure new hardware and software in an expeditious manner. The demands of end-users have also created increasing challenges for salesperson professionals in providing the services needed to properly monitor, assess, size, recommend, configure and procure the solutions customers need.
Most end-users and salespeople do not have both the skill and time to understand and implement the steps necessary to address the above-mentioned challenges. Consequently, most end-users are operating their systems and counting on its reliability and serviceability in an environment of high risk. Specifically, end-users are not aware of what their actual utilization is and when they might meet unacceptable performance thresholds. Nor do end-users have sufficient knowledge to identify the cause of particular performance problems and what impact potential new applications will have on their systems. As such, users are at the mercy of third parties to advise them on assessing system utilization and sizing, configuring and procuring future solutions. Unfortunately, these third parties (e.g., sales professionals and technical support members) do not have the bandwidth to address all of the customers' needs.
Previous attempts to the foregoing problems include the use of tools, such as system monitoring tools, to provide end-users and sales professionals with meaningful information about system utilization. However, these attempted solutions have met with limited success due to problems ranging from ease-of-use to lack of integration. For example, system monitoring tools have been available for some time but the output has been difficult to understand and there is no integration with other tools/processes to determine what to do next. As a result, end-users of such tools are still dependent on outside “experts” to understand the information gathered and how to use it. Another tool which has been used unsuccessfully to address the issues of system maintenance and optimization is a configurator. In general, conventional configurators allows selection and configuration of features for a product in valid manner. Configurators proved too difficult in that they are not only inherently hard to use but they have not allowed for automatic integration of other data/facts derived from other tools.
Therefore, there exists a need for a solution that simplifies and expedites the process of managing and growing an information technology system, thereby helping to insure its success.